The present invention relates to the placement, affixing and removal of lighting wire strands or other decorations or ornamentation in remote locations and, more particularly, to a tool for performing the aforementioned tasks.
Some devices exist for the purpose of assisting in the placement of decorations and ornaments such as strands of electric holiday lights. Such holiday lights can be strung on structures, such as buildings, roofs, gutters and garages, as well as on shrubbery and, of course, trees.
In order to put up holiday lights, a homeowner usually uses a ladder. Unfortunately, ladders are inherently dangerous, especially when used only rarely by the homeowner and at great heights. Furthermore, most existing products for affixing lights to a residential building require one or both hands to be applied, leaving no means for balancing or safely grasping a ladder.
In addition, in the case of holiday decorating, the entire hazardous process must be repeated to remove the decorations. The difficulty of this process is compounded by the fact that in many regions holiday decorating takes place in cold and/or icy conditions.
Also, for most outdoor decorating, such as adorning residential buildings with strands of holiday lights, one often finds obstructions to placing a ladder in the necessarily adjacent position to the building. These obstructions include trees, bushes and other shrubbery as well as porches and other structures, or ground otherwise unsuitable for positioning a ladder.
Furthermore, when decorating trees, because of their conical shape, a person must lean away from the ladder to reach the tree, thereby increasing the potential for an injurious fall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,905 issued to Bentivegna for ORNAMENT HANDLING APPARATUS, discloses an apparatus for handling ornaments and other objects, including an elongated handle and a hook-shaped applicator. The applicator is attached to one end of the elongated handle and a hook receiving hole extends at least partially into the applicator to hold an ornament hook therein. The apparatus may further include a retriever for removing ornaments. The apparatus may alternatively include an applicator affixed to a connector for attachment to an elongated handle, or additionally, the apparatus may be sold as a kit where the applicator and retriever are removably affixed to the elongated handle or are attached to separate connectors for attachment to the elongated handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,058 issued to Protz, Jr. for LIGHT CLIP FOR SHINGLES OR GUTTERS, discloses a light clip for holding a light bulb with an attachment portion for removably mounting the light clip to a support surface such as a shingle or gutter without putting holes in the gutters or shingles. The attachment portion has a mechanism with a plurality of discrete stop positions, and cooperates with a bulb holder having connecting prongs. The mechanism with discrete stops cooperates with the prongs to mount the bulb holder to the attachment portion and to provide a plurality of discrete angular positions of a bulb carried by the bulb holder with respect to the attachment portion. The gutter attachment portion is capable of mounting onto a variety of gutter shapes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,334, issued to Cedillo for LIGHT HANGING EXTENSION DEVICE AND METHOD FOR USING SAME, discloses a device for storing and hanging a continuous string of lights on a tree. The device includes a spool assembly having first and second annular plates spaced apart and connected to a cylinder member. One of the annular plates is adapted to releasably secure an end portion of the string of lights in a fixed position. An axle structure is removably secured within a bore of the cylinder member. The axle structure has a holding mechanism releasably securing the axle structure to the cylinder member. A handle is coaxially mounted to the axle structure. An elongated pole is provided which has first and second end portions. The first end portion is removably coaxially secured to the handle. The elongated pole is sized for extending and elevating the spool assembly upwardly in close adjacency with branches of a tree when a user grasps the second end portion of the elongated pole. The spool assembly can be moved around a perimeter of the tree to enable the string of lights of be progressively strung about the tree.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,975 issued to Casper for DECORATING SYSTEM, discloses a decorating system that enables decorative articles to be hung from high places with safety. The decorating system comprises a dual hook and an adapter. The dual hook has a ring, a first hook, and a second hook. The decorative article is held by the second hook. The adapter is attached to the end of a pole and has a finger that is insertable into the dual hook ring, much like a carnival game. A user manipulates the pole to locate the dual hook first over a selected support member. The dual hook is lowered slightly to rest the first hook thereof on the support member. Then the adapter finger is removed from the dual hook ring. To take down the decorative article, the adapter finger is reinserted into the dual hook ring, and the pole is manipulated to lift the dual hook off the support member and return the dual hook and decorative article to the ground.
It would be advantageous, therefore, to provide an implement for allowing a user to affix and remove decorations such as holiday lights from a distance, without using a ladder.
It would be further advantageous to provide an easy to use means for installing a temporary hook, or hanger to be affixed to a fixed structure, such as a roof, branch or gutter without the need for a ladder, providing means for hanging such items as decorative holiday lights, windsocks, bird feeders and the like.
Additionally, it would be advantageous to use the positioning implement in conjunction with a hanger which may be put in place on an object using the positioning implement for temporarily affixing the hanger from which to hang the decoration, such as a strand of lights.
Another advantage for the user would be for the temporary hook item to cause no permanent damage or other lasting after effects to the fixed structure or support member.
Another advantage of such a system would be for all items put in place with the system, and such temporary hooks or hangers, to be easily removable by the user without the need for a ladder.
It would also be advantageous to provide means for a temporary hook, or hanger to become attached to the item being hung, such as a strand of holiday lights, so that, when the hanging item is removed, the temporary hook or hanger is prevented from being lost, or falling into the gutter, for example.
It would be advantageous to provide a decoration installation tool that is easy to manufacture, made from simple injection molded plastic requiring no assembly.
The primary advantages enjoyed by the user are the dramatic increases in safety, convenience and speed with which items, such as holiday decorations, can be put up and taken down compared to previous known methods.
A particular advantage of this invention is provided by the design features of the distal end. The combination of features provide both the benefits of a relatively wide U-shaped opening for grabbing items, such as a strand of wire, and relatively narrow opening, which is useful for transferring items to another means for holding them.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an article for affixing and removing a strand of lights to and from a particular place. For example, the light strand can be positioned on a roof, a gutter, a tree, etc. An elongated positioning implement has a substantially U-shaped distal end for receiving and holding a wire or light strand. A dividing post can also be attached to the distal end, or integral to it, located between the distally oriented fingers of the U-shape. A finger can also be attached to a portion of the U-shaped distal end.
In its most simple form, the method for affixing and removing holiday light strands and the like (bird feeders, wind socks, wind chimes, ornaments) from high places utilizes the aforementioned implement for positioning same in conjunction with a relatively permanently fixed hook, rod, branch, post or any fixed protrusion. In this instance, the positioning implement is used to ferry an item, such as a strand of lights, to a relatively fixed means for holding the item. The positioning implement is used to simply lift and/or later remove an item to and from a resting place. The positioning implement, with or without the aid of an elongated extension pole, allows a person to hang an object on and remove it from a high place without using a ladder.